The Song Of Songs

***FLIPPANCY WARNING - DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT.***

I’m at a complete loss about this one.

Some say it’s meant as an allegorical picture of God’s relationship with Israel, however since it doesn’t claim this about itself, that seems to require rather a lot of work on the part of the reader.

Others say that it’s an allegorical picture of the relationship between Christ and the individual believer, but again, IMHO someone trying to write about that just would never have come out with this. Like my misgivings about the first chapter of Genesis being an allegory, if that had really been the case, then surely the author would have said so.

And then there’s the theory that it’s just a literal poem about love between a man and a woman, or maybe how love between a man and a woman is meant to be. But again this doesn’t work for me. These two only seem to see each other’s physical characteristics, and not look at each other’s heart much. Even the narrative makes little sense, with the fourth song seeing the man knocking at the woman’s door and then apparently losing interest and just leaving. The woman then goes searching for him, even though she says she knows where he is.

I’m sorry, I don’t wish to offend anyone, but this is like reading Hollywood. The story makes little sense, the “love” is skin-deep and this is exactly the sort of relationship that everyone, including the church, tells me doesn’t really exist, and rarely lasts.

Surely that can’t be the love that God has for anyone.